Spartacus sucks you in - Happy Historical Hyperlinkation

March 14, 2003 3:55 AM

Wow. Spartacus Educational is a masterwork of hyperlinked history with a rather eclectic list of focus topics that can suck you in and never let go. Start anywhere, and then just click, and click, and click...

In light of recent events, you might begin, if you wish, with a brush-up on the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and from there go on to find out more about the Black Hand secret society responsible for the killing. You may attempt to sidestep politics by going to cartoonists, or U.S. novelists and poets, but you will find that the site is organized against a backdrop of world politics (viewed chiefly from a British perspective), a point of view that weaves its own endlessly looping and mesmerizing mesh.
posted by taz (9 comments total)

To search the site, use site-search on the Google bar near the bottom of the home page, or here.
John Simkin is evidently the force behind the site, if not its sole contributor. I came across it while searching for the "Fabian Society", which I was looking up because I saw from "none's" interesting post earlier that 19th century activist Annie Besant was a member of this organization.
posted by taz at 3:57 AM on March 14, 2003

Thanks taz, this is a great find. I'm reading a biography of Salmon P. Chase that is light on endnotes and strong on assuming you know the history of 1840s America pretty well. This site will surely help me get through it.
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:31 AM on March 14, 2003

Nice link taz, I always find sites like this interesting. In recent years I have come to realise that the quality of history education when I was at school was pretty bad. Not sure the reason for that, maybe it's because the history of Britain alone is so vast that there's simply too much to cram in before you even get to other countries of the world.
posted by chill at 4:48 AM on March 14, 2003

Excellent resource. Thanks!
posted by Slithy_Tove at 4:48 AM on March 14, 2003

Wow, wonderful link taz! Thanks!
posted by talos at 5:04 AM on March 14, 2003

Whoa! taz comes through with a great resource! Thanks, taz!
posted by Shane at 6:28 AM on March 14, 2003

Thanks. I passed this link on to my history-teaching colleagues.
posted by kozad at 9:01 AM on March 14, 2003

Wonderful, tazoula mou. Thanks.
posted by languagehat at 1:26 PM on March 14, 2003

Great find taz - this is a real gem. But then, you always bring us fabulous stuff - encore, encore!
posted by madamjujujive at 8:28 AM on March 15, 2003